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Upper Division Courses - Summer 2010

Welcome

Please note: the following list is subject to change and may not be comprehensive.
Please check the online
course listing for the full roster along with information on class
days/times and room numbers. The course location is at UHD Main Campus
unless otherwise noted.

Students will study and practice writing the types of documents frequently used in the workplace, including cover letters and resumes, proposals, progress reports, formal reports, and PowerPoint presentations.

Learning Outcomes

Research, design, create and prepare informal and formal documents suitable for the workplace

Balance visual and verbal elements of communication in documents and oral presentations

Use current technology to search for and report information

Edit documents for correctness

Respond usefully to others' writing

Major assignments include writing

Cover letters and resumes in response to job announcements

A proposal for a recommendation/feasibility report

A progress report

A recommendation/feasibility report

Recent examples of reports include

Recommending implementation of JROTC programs at HISD junior high schools

Evaluating whether it is better for a student to remodel her existing home or build a new home

Recommending enhancements to security for UHD students, staff, and faculty

Technical communication can be described as the process of creating, shaping, and communicating technical information so that people can use it safely, effectively, and efficiently. In this class, we’ll consider principles of composition, document design, research, critical thinking, ethics, and rhetoric when applied to some basic technical/business communication genres, such as proposals, reports, memos, letters, e-mails, definitions, instructions, manuals, and job-application materials. You will write examples of these genres as well as engage in collaborative writing.

This is a hybrid course that only meets in person twice a week; you will need regular and reliable internet access to succeed, as well as MS Word and a Vista account.

In English 3302 you will learn the theories, principles, and processes of effective written communication in business and technical disciplines. Particular attention is given to the major strategies for composing business and technical discourse, techniques of analyzing audiences and writing situations, and methods for organizing data and information.

English 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing

Joe Sample

Summer III

MTWR 2:45 - 4:45 p.m.

CRN: 40190

In English 3302 you will learn the theories, principles, and processes of effective written communication in business and technical disciplines. Particular attention is given to the major strategies for composing business and technical discourse, techniques of analyzing audiences and writing situations, and methods for organizing data and information.

English 3305 - Essay Writing

Adam Ellwanger

Summer III

MTWR 2:45 - 4:45 p.m.

CRN: 40191

English 3305 is both a study of the rhetorical form of the essay and a workshop in which you will hone your skills as an essayist (and, more broadly, as a writer). Over the course of the semester, we will emphasize the links between being a good reader and being a good writer: all of the essays you write will be critical responses to the essays we read as a class. The essays that you will be asked to read will be fairly difficult; however, you will have the opportunity to read them each a number of times (and to modify your responses to the texts with each reading). In addition to the four major essays that you will write and revise, you will regularly compose short writing assignments in and out of class. Ultimately, the goals of English 3305 are 1) to improve your skills as a competent writer of essays, 2) to strengthen your critical reading and thinking abilities, and 3) to equip you with a set of practices and routines that will enable you to meet the needs of a variety of writing situations.

English 3313 - Studies in Dramatic Literature

William Gilbert

Summer I

MTWR 10:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

CRN: 30232

During Summer 1, 2010 we will read a couple of plays each week, moving from early Greek tragedy through plays of succeeding periods, including some written in our own times. Having read assigned plays, some of the most significant and engaging works of the past two and one-half millennia, students will discuss and analyze them in class discussions and in three essays. We will concentrate on the language and structure of the plays, trying to imagine and articulate how textual clues guide staged productions. Whenever possible, we will see inexpensive (or, better yet, free) productions being presented in Houston. The course culminates in a comprehensive written exam.

English 3314 - Studies in Autobiography

Antonio Garcia

Summer I

MTWR 8:00 - 10:00 a.m.

CRN: 30296

This course will investigate critical problems posed by autobiography as a literary genre through a study of postmodern works written in an autobiographical mode. We will read and analyze such authors as Roland Barthes, Georges Perec, Michael Ondaatje, and Peter Handke. Class discussions and student writing about these primary works will seek to uncover problems of self representation in our time. These readings will also provide a context for the analysis of an outside autobiography, chosen from a list by each student. Students will present major findings to the class in response to a motivating critical question related to their autobiography. This presentation will be the basis for an extended paper due at the end of the session.

English 3317 - Study in the Theory of Rhetoric

Anthony Chiaviello

Summer III

MTWR 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

This course introduces the interdisciplinary study of rhetoric, clarifies its importance for critical understanding of all kinds of texts – including those of popular culture that surround us every day – and helps the student begin to comprehend how such texts act on our understanding of culture, politics, commerce, and the world around us. The main objective of the course is to equip the student to apply rhetorical theory to critique and evaluate such texts. Professor Chiaviello has a professional background in media, PR, and journalism, and a scholarly background in environmental rhetoric. For a textbook, the course will rely on Stoner and Perkins’s Making Sense of Messages.

English 3346 - Introduction to Literary Translation

Robin Davidson

Summer III

MTWR 10:00 am – 12:00 noon

CRN: 40327

English 3346 is the first to be offered from a sequence of courses designed to support the new Creative Writing Minor. Translation is a fundamental human activity. We engage in translating our world in a variety of situations on a daily basis. (For example, just consider how you might have to explain to a family member unfamiliar with text messaging how to read OMG or LMAO.) Literary translation forms the basis of most readers’ experience with world literature, and globalization makes the ability to move between languages increasingly important to all of us. This course will combine theory and practice to approach literary translation in its full complexity as both an art and a science, and will draw on the points of view of creative writing, linguistics, and translation theory. In addition to our weekly readings and introductory translation exercises, you will be asked to complete a translation project of your choosing that may take the form of a chapbook of poems or selected short fiction or an excerpt from a novel translated from your source language into English (the target language for this course). A review syllabus is available to students upon request (davidsonr@uhd.edu ).

Biguenet, John, and Rainer Schulte (Eds.). Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1992.

English 3377 - Modern Irish Literature

Paul Kintzele

MTWR 7:45 - 9:45 p.m.

UHS Center at Cinco Ranch

CRN: 30354

Ireland is known for both its rich cultural heritage as well as its long, complicated, and often brutal history. In the 1890s, Irish negotiations with the British for Home Rule had reached an impasse, but while the movement for political independence had temporarily stalled, Irish cultural nationalism gathered momentum. This course will follow the development of Irish literature from the early poetry of Yeats and the founding of the Abbey Theatre up to the present day. We will see how writers answered the fundamental question of what it means to be Irish in various—and often conflicting—ways. Authors may include: Yeats, Synge, Joyce, Beckett, Heaney, Boland, Carr, and McPherson. Requirements: two shorter essays, one longer research essay, and frequent reading quizzes.

In English 6310 you will consider the implications of professional communication in a global economy, look at theories of global professional communication, examine issues surrounding communication for and with multiple audiences with diverse linguistic and cultural patterns, and learn research methods for studying communication in the global workplace.

English 6360 - Research Methods in Technical & Professional Communication

Mike Duncan, Ph.D.

Summer II

Hybrid - MW In Person 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

CRN: 35045

In this course we’ll be exploring the basics of qualitative/quantitative research methods, with a particular focus on those employed in the field of Technical and Professional Communication. I highly recommend that you use this course to help you get a head start on your thesis/capstone proposal for the MSPWTC (Master of Science in Professional Writing and Technical Communication) degree.

We’ll be learning about the strengths, weaknesses, and appropriateness of various research methods, as well as how to formulate productive research questions and where to find potential resources for answering those same questions. You will also learn about how to conduct your research, analyze and evaluate your findings, and present your research in an effective format.

This is a hybrid course that only meets in person twice a week; you will need regular and reliable internet access to succeed, as well as MS Word and a Vista account.

Required Texts:

MacNealy, Mary Sue. Strategies for Empirical Research in Writing. Longman, 1998. (Other texts will be supplied by instructor.)